'This Is Why We Need People Like Me in Congress': Delia Ramirez Discusses GOP Plans to Defund Chicago
Plus, an editor's note on how Migrant Insider will cover ICE raids differently.
On Tuesday, we asked Delia Ramirez (D-IL) about the rumors of a large scale ICE raid in Chicago and what the city is doing to prepare for it. Ramirez, a new member of the House Homeland Security Committee, is gearing up to challenge a flood of anti-immigrant proposals that Republicans (and some Democrats) are pushing in the new term. Here’s our exchange with Ramirez —
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Nico: What do you think about the fact that there possibility could be a…?
Ramirez: Raid in Chicago?
Nico: Yeah.
Ramirez: Well, we knew the consequences of this election. We knew what this would mean to communities and how destabilizing it would be for neighborhoods, for families, for women, for children, for fathers, who all they want to do is provide for their families. So, look, we’ve been preparing for it. I’m grateful that we have a governor and mayor who understand that it is our responsibility to protect the constitutional rights of everyone, regardless of legal status.
It’s why, frankly, yesterday, there was 150 volunteers and a bunch of electors, we went up and down my district, talking to everyday people about their rights. I had a guy who, the moment he saw me, he pulled out his employment authorization card to prove to me that he had documentation. I said “you don't have to do that. That's exactly why I'm here. I want you to know that you have the right to remain silent. You don’t have to open the door, and these are your rights”.
This is the reality, this is why people like me need to be in this place. This is why people like me need to be members of the Homeland Security (House Committee) because of violations of human rights that we’re about to see. It’s going to haunt us for decades to come.
We need to be prepared, which is why we’re creating a coordinated strategy in the State of Illinois to be able to respond to the potential raids and what it actually means to be threaten to defund sanctuary cities.
Nico: Thank you, congresswoman.
A bill that worries Ramirez, whose husband was undocumented until recently, is H.R. 32, a bill introduced by Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) “to provide that sanctuary jurisdictions that provide benefits to aliens who are present in the United States without lawful status under the immigration laws are ineligible for Federal funds intended to benefit such aliens.” The bill passed the House in the last Congress before being sent to the Senate where it quietly died.
HR. 32 is another attempt by congressional Republicans to punish Democratic-led municipalities that refuse to work with ICE to detain migrants. Police have long pushed back against federal mandates, which are almost always unfunded, to detain migrants because it depletes local police budgets and has a chilling effect in local communities willingness to cooperate with the local law enforcement.
Editor’s Note: We at Migrant Insider are going to err on the side of extreme caution when it comes to preemptively reporting on these raids because of the chilling effect false reporting has on migrant families. It’s worth noting that none of the major ICE raids reported for the first day of Trump’s presidency, including the one in Chicago, actually happened. As we’ve written in before, the fear of raids is being leveraged by the Trump White House as a means to terrorize migrant communities. Unlike some of our alarmist press colleagues, we will not be in the business of helping the new White House, or any administration, harm migrants. Thanks for understanding.